I got this Thai con last May at Lowe’s. It had about 5 leaves then and has consistently produced 1-2 leaves a month since. She is growing bigger and bigger and I’m not sure how to tie her to a moss pole. I was trying to group the stalks together so it would grow upward and not outward but then all the giant leaves were kinda squished together. Any advice? I love her so much!
Edit: sorry, I know the thing I have in there isn’t a moss pole! Just looking for advice on what to use/how to tie!
by Negative_Raisin87
5 Comments
This is not a moss pole. If you don’t want to worry about watering an actual moss pole a plank will be better at that.
you’re going to need 2 supports for each stem you have. the supports go at the back of the stem and only attach the main stem to the pole, not the petioles.
1. Beautiful plant.
2. Never tie petioles to anything! The plant will want to move those around at its leisure.
3. That is not a moss pole – and to be frank, that thing you’re using is the worst option (but hey, they still work). Short of building a real moss pole (has benefits, but increased maintenance) you’re best off with a wooden dowel or plank of wood.
4. You MUST place the support on the BACKSIDE of the vine. In the picture below, red is the backside, yellow is where the support should go.
5. There are two vines in that pot. So you need two supports .
6. Following from two, when you tie a vine to a support, only tie it to the vine itself below the last leaf. Again the vine is the part that has red drawn on it
https://preview.redd.it/gkcgn8ugzvrg1.jpeg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=af563224f9f6e2454dd79045a1e87c83032d1e9f
You’ve got 2 plants in the one pot which can be doable but usually not advisable. However, they seem to be plants pretty well which is rare from a nursery. 😅
Whilst you don’t need moss poles, the stake you have isn’t sturdy so it won’t be able to support the weight of the plants. You’ll need at least two supports and they’ll go at the back of each plant. Usually I have a moss pole/cococoir pole (solid, not bendy like yours) with an extra thick garden stake. I add a second garden stake when they get bigger.
You may be able to train the lower half that’s already crawling but it probably isn’t worth the effort, they’re not that far along.
Tie the stem to the supports, not the petioles (the things the leaves grow off). Athough despite popular belief, you can tie them temporarily when training them to grow a certain way. Just be careful not to tie where a new leaf will come through as it can damage the leaf growing inside. I tie my top leaf up just after it hardens off then release it when the next leaf starts emerging. This makes my plant grow the way I want it to instead of being a mess.
Example of how the supports should sit:
https://preview.redd.it/y049bk4invrg1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e750a1f3ee07208be58ad4f5ee88e97e26cba2c7
Yeah coco coir poles don’t really work that well for monsteras IMO. I think that they need to “feel” humidity to actually send roots into it, otherwise they just ignore it, and get crazy 🥲 If you check my photo, I made a DIY pole and didn’t tie my monstera, you see that roots just go straight into it, instinctively.
I used moss before too, worked great at first but long term… honestly it became a nightmare 😅
Now I just use substrate in the pole and it works way better for me (so far so good, I will see in the long run 🤞)
https://preview.redd.it/4c1kwtkxovrg1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9881ca72d8f092979881b867882d957132fe41f5